creative writing, parenting, social media

Main menu

Tag Archives: productivity

I’ve been trying to drive up my number of Facebook friends to surpass 1,000. I believe the more friends you have, the more you achieve.

There are studies to bear this out. UCLA researchers studied LA high school students and discovered More school friends?=better grades. I like to think that the study goes for more adult friends too. More work friends?=better work.

Journal of Research on Adolescence — adolescents with more in-school friends than out-of-school friends had higher grade-point averages and — complementing this finding — that those with higher GPAs had more in-school friends. (from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100603172221.

The key for me is to draw the circle wide. My friends are varied in status, age, race, gender.

I learned a long time ago, especially as a writer, that the person to befriend is not the CEO but the CEO’s assistant. He or she is the one who really knows what’s going on and can get you the good story.

I love that FB has made the word friend a verb as well as a noun. It’s no secret that I’m in love with social media, especially blogging on WordPress.

One of my real (and FB) friends mentioned that she’s concerned that by blogging we’re creating a false sense of intimacy. Maybe it’s true we reveal a little too much of ourselves. I’m not sure — to figure out what I think about this, I’ll have to talk it over with one of my friends. Or maybe I’ll just instant message them.

I have been posting to one of my four (yes, 4!) blogs every day for a week.

The first few days I wrote first thing in the morning, around 6:30 am, right after I recorded my dreams in my journal and sipped my coffee. Then the kids had to be at school early or I had to be be at work early, I felt a cold coming on, so I wrote at lunch time around noon. These last two nights, I have written while yelling at my kids, “Get. To. Bed. Now.” at 11 pm. I felt the day breathing down my neck. I felt, “I have to finish this blog post by midnight!”

Arianna is brilliant and funny and so right. We Type A women are not getting enough sleep. Arianna advises that women need to sleep our way to the top. Literally. For me, that means going to bed by 10 and getting up at 6 ish. (Some studies suggest the brain is most alert first thing in the morning.)

Incidentally, I met Arianna at a women’s writing conference at Skidmore College through the IWWG (International Women’s Writing Guild) probably 18 years ago. She was memorable, curious, friendly, smart and glamorous. I think we were in a memoir writing class together. Since then, Arianna has slept her way to the top and I want to too.